The Idiot (Wants To) Join a Gentleman’s Club

You know what I’m talking about.

High-rolling, big-balling, I-have-so-much-money-that-I-use-a-$20-to-light-my-cigar kind of club.

Nothing to do with strippers. I think.

This is an older story from our conversations that I don’t think I’ve recounted on this blog yet.

So how does it go?

He was recruited (?) because he is now doing this MBA refresher course thing, and he is starting to network with people in the crew.

Someone or another, introduced The Idiot to the club as a potential candidate.

As he was explaining how he was recruited, BF’s mouth kept twitching in the most peculiar way.

Basically, the founders of the club called The Idiot, and met him at a fancy restaurant, where they plied him with drinks and fancy food.

Over lunch, they explained that the club cost $5000 a month (which means $60,000 a year), and they will meet occasionally just like this, in restaurants and private clubs to discuss business.

The Idiot said he was really excited.

And that he felt like this was a real once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but ultimately, $5000 was a lot of money.

He considered that it could be seen as a way to sell his wife’s photographs.

Oh yeah.

We love that part…

The founders were enthusiastic when they heard The Idiot Wife was a “professional” photographer.

They said: “Set up a show and we’ll come take a look”.

And he got extremely excited about that, assuming that they would DEFINITELY buy something, as they are his friends.

Yes.

He wanted to join a $5000 a month club, just to sell his wife’s crappy, blurry photographs.

You may think I’m being harsh, but I am being realistic, in assessing her as a person who could be someone I’d be inspired to buy a print from.

Those photographs were worse than what I could have taken with my Canon camera.

A lot of them came out blurry, with red-eye and the composition was horribly cliche. You could find a lot better on Flickr.

If she was a fabulous photographer, her work would speak for herself.

But since she got a degree from Mexico in Photography, she thinks she’s National Geographic.

Near the end, The Idiot was worried he’d have to actually pay for the $70 meal that he ate, but said he felt relieved and lucky that they told him “Nonsense, we’re picking up the bill.”

Then he felt anxious after, because he felt like he had to return the favour and take THEM out to dinner and pay for THEIR meals.

In the end, he didn’t sign up for the club (big surprise).

But BF speculated that if it was $1000-a-month, he may have considered it.

To which I gagged.

And then he said his wife was looking into renting a gallery and showing off her photographs, to sell them at $1000/print.

That.. is another story, for another day.

I asked BF why he was smiling so strangely during the conversation.

He explained to me later that these gentleman’s clubs are quite common in Europe, and he was even part of one (!!!) but:

  • BF’s company paid the yearly fee because it was crazy expensive
  • It was really exclusive, as in you couldn’t just be recruited, you had to be vetted
  • It was also for business talk most of the time, to get new clients for the company

He said that NO ONE paid for their own membership, which is why the fees are $5000/month or more, as the COMPANY is the one paying for it.

And NO ONE would ever just recruit a random MBA Refresher Student, because they want to keep the club exclusive.

They also don’t take people who aren’t part of a company and working.

(FYI: The Idiot was still unemployed when they asked, and they knew it)

He said that right away, he understood that the founders were crooks, looking to take some money from gullible “businessmen” by flattering them with an invitation to this exclusive club.

And he couldn’t blame them.

Don’t worry, we told The Idiot all of the above in a tactful manner, but ultimately, he didn’t want to join for $60,000/year, so whatever we said to him was moot.

Tags:

About the Author

Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver. I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year. Now I am self-employed, and you can read more about my story here, or visit my other blog: The Everyday Minimalist.